In the first week of November, Korean convenience stores change color. Red boxes pile up by the register, gift sets wrapped in cellophane hang from the shelves, and somewhere there is a sign that says 11.11. That date is Pepero Day. Written as numbers, 11/11 looks like four thin sticks standing in a row.

Pepero is Lotte’s chocolate-dipped biscuit stick, sold in Korea since 1983. On November 11, people give boxes of it to friends, classmates, partners and coworkers. It is not a public holiday. Shops stay open, school goes on, and nobody gets the day off. It is simply the day when almost everyone ends up holding a red box.

Where it came from

The usual story goes back to Busan in the early 1990s. Schoolgirls there swapped Pepero on November 11 and wished each other to grow tall and slim, like the stick. A few years later, Lotte’s sales office in the Gyeongnam region noticed that stores kept ordering extra Pepero for the same date every year.

Lotte says it did not invent the day, and Korean media generally agree that students started it. What Lotte did was make it bigger. Today about half of Pepero’s yearly sales come in the autumn run-up to November 11.

Who gives Pepero to whom

Valentine’s Day in Korea is mostly about women giving chocolate, and men return the favor a month later on White Day, March 14. Pepero Day works in every direction. Students hand out boxes to the whole class. Office workers leave a few on their colleagues’ desks. Couples go bigger, with gift baskets, oversized boxes or homemade sticks dipped in melted chocolate.

So if a Korean friend or coworker gives you a box, there is no hidden message. It is a friendly hello. If you want to give one back, a single box from the nearest convenience store is perfectly normal.

What the shelves look like in 2026

This year the convenience store chains are leaning on characters. CU has Pepero Day items made with Pokémon and Tamagotchi, and GS25 is pushing its own character, Mumussi. Lotte has limited-edition boxes with Stray Kids and Sanrio characters on the packaging.

Rice cakes are getting attention too. Store owners told JoongAng Economy News that some shoppers are asking for mochi-style rice cake desserts instead of Pepero this year, and 7-Eleven says its rice cake sales to foreign customers rose 80% between January and September. If you want to know what else is worth picking up, our Korean convenience store guide covers the basics.

Stray Kids turned it into a K-pop date

Stray Kids became Pepero’s global ambassadors in May 2025, and Lotte extended the deal in April 2026. On September 10, 2026, the group released a digital single called “November 11,” written and composed by member Han, to introduce Pepero Day to fans outside Korea.

Lotte is also running an Instagram event called PLAY WITH PEPERO until February 5, 2027. You post a photo or video with Pepero using the required hashtags, then submit the post link through Pepero’s official Instagram. Lotte says 111 winners will be invited to a Stray Kids meet and greet in Seoul in April 2027, and the top 11 also get round-trip travel and two nights of lodging. Read the official rules before you enter, because eligibility can differ by country.

In New York, Pepero ads are running on a Times Square screen until November 15, for the fourth year in a row.

The other November 11

Not everyone loves the idea of a snack brand owning the date. November 11 is also Farmers’ Day in Korea, and in 2006 the agriculture ministry named it Garaetteok Day, after the long white rice cake bars that look just as much like the number 1. Some local governments hand out garaetteok instead of chocolate. Most people do not pick a side. They eat both.

If you are in Korea on 11/11, you do not need a plan. Walk into any convenience store, pick a box, and give it to someone who has been kind to you lately.